Image credit: Tara Smith, Kristina Jacobsen
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Demo song for the project, Together at the Table, "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" (Kristina Jacobsen, Dair Obenshain)
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“Together at the Table” connects food to songwriting, and sound to taste and smell, through the performance of a song cycle of six original songs, each inspired by cultural encounters with food. The performance is then followed by a meal shared together with members of the audience, where the menu is crafted around the foods referenced in the songs.
Each song is inspired by a deep, sensory memory with food, from the many places I have lived and done ethnographic fieldwork, including the Navajo Nation, Sardinia, Italy, Bergen, Norway, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain.
The songs, performed as a single set, will be used to craft a state of the art, multi-course menu, designed by a professional chef who is my chief collaborator on this project. This menu will be served to all guests who attend the show, capped at 20 people. Thus, the songs serve as the “aperitivo” or appetizer for the event, and the meal is the “main course.” Guests leave with a printed menu of all the songs, and all the dishes, served and shared.
Through this multi-sensory sonic and culinary adventure, guests are transported to other places that they otherwise might not think, or care, to know in a deeper way. Thus, food and song become portals to greater cultural curiosity and interpersonal connection.
Artist Residencies to complete the songs will occur in 2025 in New Mexico, Italy and Sweden; the project will launch in early 2026.
Learn more about how to support this project, here.
To host a "Together at the Table" event, email the program coordinator/artist at: [email protected].
Each song is inspired by a deep, sensory memory with food, from the many places I have lived and done ethnographic fieldwork, including the Navajo Nation, Sardinia, Italy, Bergen, Norway, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain.
The songs, performed as a single set, will be used to craft a state of the art, multi-course menu, designed by a professional chef who is my chief collaborator on this project. This menu will be served to all guests who attend the show, capped at 20 people. Thus, the songs serve as the “aperitivo” or appetizer for the event, and the meal is the “main course.” Guests leave with a printed menu of all the songs, and all the dishes, served and shared.
Through this multi-sensory sonic and culinary adventure, guests are transported to other places that they otherwise might not think, or care, to know in a deeper way. Thus, food and song become portals to greater cultural curiosity and interpersonal connection.
Artist Residencies to complete the songs will occur in 2025 in New Mexico, Italy and Sweden; the project will launch in early 2026.
Learn more about how to support this project, here.
To host a "Together at the Table" event, email the program coordinator/artist at: [email protected].
